Intermec CTO Arvin Danielson, has slammed Microsoft for the way it has handled the upcoming release of Windows 8. His outfit makes rugged mobile devices and he claims Redmond is showing all the drive and enthusiasm of a block on its way to the gallows.

Danielson told Computing that he does not think Microsoft has handled the Windows 8 release very well. He has told them they are hurting themselves by not moving faster and being aggressive with Windows 8 and the tablet space.

While Microsoft has announced Windows 8, it has left people unaware about when they will actually be able to get it. The implication is that it will be 2014, but that is too late.

This has left this huge gap between the announcement and the release, which may mean enterprises turn to Android. Danielson argued that Microsoft needs to let companies like Intermec get hold of the software so it can get working on developing applications, so that when Windows 8 is released generally, it will have applications ready to distribute.

Samsung Electronics has said that the semiconductor industry to grow at a low rate next year as the global economic slowdown cuts into demand. Chatting to Reuters, Oh-hyun Kwon, who is Samsung's device solutions head, said that under an economic slowdown, the visibility of the semiconductor industry is low; the growth rate in 2012 will not be high and technology will be an important factor.

Samsung Electronics is currently rumoured to take over ownership of Samsung Mobile Display (SMD), which is its joint venture with Samsung SDI. Kwon said he has not heard of such a plan, which you would have expected him to have done. SMD is doing rather well at the moment thanks to booming sales of the active-matrix OLED (AMOLED) display used in smartphones, gaming machines and tablets.

But he did say that Samsung would actively pursue acquisitions if necessary to boost its technology level. He was aslo optimistic for the future of 3D integrated circuits. Kwon Samsung will launch related products within 2-3 years when market conditions improves.

Fruity peddler of broken iDreams, Apple has been slowing down the applications of other people in its iTunes store to make its own products appear better. According to the Register, the Apple's iOS mobile operating system runs web applications at significantly slower speeds when they're launched from the iPhone or iPad home screen in "full-screen mode" as opposed to in the Apple Safari browser.

The operating system also hampers the performance of these apps in other ways. The Register is not sure if these are accidental bugs or issues consciously introduced by Apple. One mobile developer said that Apple is basically using subtle defects to make web apps appear to be low quality – even when they claim HTML5 is a fully supported platform.

Apple is refusing to comment of course. Alex Kessinger, a mobile application developer and blogger who has focused on building web-standards-based apps for the iPhone said that Apple was not using the new JavaScript engine with applications that launch from the home screen.

Home screen web apps" can't use various web caching systems, including the HTML5 Application Cache, which means they can't be cached to run offline. They can't be rendered using Apple's newer "asynchronous mode" and have to use the old "synchronous mode", which means means they don't quite look as good.